Community comes to life with sidewalk chalk

Looking for a cheap way to entertain a couple of young children for a couple of hours on a warm Sunday afternoon?

I have two words: Sidewalk chalk.

I speak from experience. Those two magical words kept 8-year-old Katie and 5-year-old Drew busy for the better part of Sunday evening. They were so busy creating their driveway masterpiece, that I pretty much had to drag them in for a bath as the sun fell below the horizon.

In case you don't know, sidewalk chalk is available at pretty much any of the retailers around here. It's usually sold in a bucket, or some similar plastic contraption. And it's cheap. I recommend buying mass quantities. You won't regret it.

On Sunday though, Katie and Drew set out to bring the community of Blytheville to our Armorel neighborhood by recreating the city in our driveway, in chalk. The specific area of focus was the East Main street area, which apparently they see as the heart of the community. And as children of the commercial age, that's probably about right.

Katie's part was the most detailed. Her drawing was appropriately labeled, "Bly-ville," which makes perfect sense to me. After all, who ever heard of a silent "the"?

Her drawing started with Sonic. Just past a curve, and on the other side of the road, she labeled buildings as "McDonald's," "Pizza Inn," "beer and wine store," "Holiday Inn," "gas" and "gas." Across from this area was one square labeled "car wash," and another named "elacapoco." She then drew a wide swath of roadways, to represent Interstate 55, complete with on- and off-ramps. On the other side of her interstate, she had additional squares to represent such things as "Wal-Mart," "$ Tree," "game store," "Lowe's," "Zaxby's" and "D's."

Oddly enough, she somehow managed to forget one of our family's personal favorites, "Starbucks." And when I say "our family's personal favorites," I mean, "my wife's personal favorites." Seriously, when Starbucks first opened, we gave some serious thought to seeing if they offered direct deposit. Anyway, I pointed out the omission to Katie, and she quickly squeezed it in between "Holiday Inn" and the first "gas."

Drew's version of Blytheville was adjacent to Katie's. His version was closer to what some might refer to as "abstract." True to his form, Drew didn't see any need to limit himself to the petty constraints of "reality." In Drew's Blytheville, roads went every which way, curving back and forth, over and under each other, forming a complex conundrum of knotted roadways.

I asked him why he made it this way, and he said, "cuz that's the way I wanted it to be." Good enough for me.

Perhaps I am no more than a proud father, but I am quite fond of these two divergent visions of Blytheville, both which were properly accessorized with Matchbox cars, of course. Thanks to these two young artists, for a couple of days I no longer had to waste precious gas money to see the town of Blytheville. Through the magic of sidewalk chalk, I could see Blytheville by simply walking 20 feet into my driveway.

At least I could until last night's rain washed it all away. That's the way it goes with sidewalk chalk. Oh well. Maybe next time they'll create their own version of Disney World in the driveway. I can't wait to see it.